Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



We know from Pliny what great store the 

 auspexes ot Rome set by the woodpecker 

 *' known by his cognomen of Mars " and 

 from mediaeval German writers that a wood- 

 pecker flying to the right was an omen of 

 good luck, Picus the god was figured as a 

 youth with this bird on his head. Though 

 Pikker or Pikne is still familiar to Finns and 

 Esthonians in fairy stories, where he is known 

 as the son of thunder, he seems to have lost 

 all his birdlike qualities. The object with 

 which he strikes his enemies, it is true, is con- 

 ceived of as a musical instrument, but neither 

 drum nor tambourine ; it is the ancient instru- 

 ment of the Scotch and Irish — the bagpipes. 

 In one story found in Esthland the son of 

 thunder saves himself from the power of an 

 evil genius by stealing the thunderclap in the 

 shape of bagpipes from his father Kou and 

 giving them up as a ransom. When Old 

 Horny has them locked up in hell no rain 

 falls and the earth dries up. In another folk- 



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